You're about to get a fresh alternative to internet-based restaurant delivery services like GrubHub and Seamless. Groupon has just launched the simply-titled Groupon To Go, an order-in service that focuses on (what else?) discounts for your food. The company promises that you'll get at least 10 percent cash back on every order, which could add up if you're ordering pizza every week. The offering is only available in Chicago right now, but there are over 500 included restaurants ranging from big chains like Subway to local eateries like Al's Beef and Ditka's Restaurant. And don't worry about waiting long to give it a shot -- Groupon is expanding the service later this year, with Austin and Boston among the early highlights. It'll eventually be available nationwide.

Well, this could get messy. The GNOME project is a well-known free and open-source desktop environment for Linux distros. Gnome is also the name of Groupon's new proprietary point-of-sale operating system. The two couldn't be more opposed in ethos, and given the fact that the former has held a registered trademark on its software for the best part of a decade, the GNOME Foundation is understandably upset.

Groupon has always been pretty good for scoring cheap dinners and discounted skydiving lessons, but now that disseminator of daily deals wants to help you save money on your groceries too. Yes, really -- the company just launched a new app called Snap that promises to give you ardent shoppers money back when you buy certain products at the store. The formula is simple enough: once you're done your weekly jaunt to the local grocer, you use the app to snap a photo of your receipt for Groupon to chew on. Buy the right item and you claim some cash back that sits in a wallet of sorts until it hits the $20 threshold -- after that, Groupon cuts you a check and that'll soon land in your mailbox. If that sounds a little unlike the Groupon we all know and tolerate, well, you'd have a point. With so many players vying for recognition in the daily deals space, companies like Groupon have had to search to new ways of making money... even seemingly out-of-character ones like this and the home bulk shopping endeavor it kicked off earlier this year..

Gone are the days when restaurants and retailers needed to drop five figures for the privilege of tracking and ringing up customers. Square's Register app has been letting merchants process transactions with "cheap" consumer hardware since 2012, and now Groupon's reinforcing its own position in the point of sale game with a new iPad-based solution. Gnome, which is expected to cost merchants $10 per month, will let customers redeem their Groupons via Bluetooth, or simply by providing their name at checkout. Customers can receive email or printed receipts, and they can pay entirely with cash or a credit card whenever they're not redeeming a voucher. The company plans to move all merchants over to Gnome within the next few months, so expect a more streamlined Groupon experience soon.

Groupon has tackled localized offers and sorted reservations, so now the deals site is looking to offer discounts for those who shop in bulk. The new effort -- appropriately called Basics -- allows you to stock up on over 100 household, hygiene and health products from companies like Gillette, Dove and Burt's Bees. To sweeten the deal(s), all purchases made through the new channel will earn 5 percent back in Groupon Bucks for future use. Right now, the service is only available in the continental US, but carts that tally over $25 will ship for free. As you might expect, options are a bit limited at launch, but the company says more options are on the way -- including grocery items. If you're anxious to get shopping, don't let us hold you up any longer. You can started browsing right here.

Didn't get your Christmas presents in time? You're far from alone. Seems that both FedEx and UPS greatly underestimated the number of packages that would be passing through their systems this holiday season. More consumers are doing their gift shopping from the comfort and safety of their computers, bombarding our already stretched parcel services -- it's not surprising that something had to give. According to a spokesperson, FedEx handled roughly 275 million packages between Thanksgiving and December 22nd, while the US Postal Service said it saw a 19 percent increase in volume over last year (UPS declined to say exactly how much its expectations were exceeded). While these companies insist that the vast majority of packages were delivered by their promised December 24th deadline, a small portion did not make it in time to be placed under the tree on Christmas morning. Both the delivery companies and retailers are working to repair the damage, but the writing may be on the wall for 2014. The deadline for Christmas orders will undoubtedly be earlier next year, but the more immediate problem will be making things right with consumers this year.

Mountain View wants you to know that Google Offers isn't another Groupon copycat; that's why the service is now taking a different approach. Whereas you've previously had to pay for discount vouchers in advance, you can now clip them for free and then pay for purchases in-store, making Offers more convenient to use. The company's also introducing coupons outside the main Offers app, adding them to Wallet, Maps and Search, as well as programming Google Now to flash a notification whenever you pass by a participating establishment. Here's some even better news for veteran users, though: you can either get a refund for unused offers you've paid for, or get your money back as Google Play credit. If you go the latter route, you'll get extra dollars on top -- enough to jazz up your phone with SwiftKey or Photoshop Touch.

Groupon's iOS app just scored a refresh this week, adding access to the firm's new Reserve discount reservations platform via a dedicated tab. Savored users should be familiar with the concept: secure a spot at hit restaurants just as you can on OpenTable, but Groupon's flavor packs a compelling value add. Instead of earning negligible points towards dining gift certificates, Savored (and now Groupon Reserve) members can snag discounts of up to 40 percent at select restaurants in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The feature is now available in Groupon's iOS app, which you can download (or update) at the source link below.

Not satisfied with simply locking down your discount mountain-climbing lessons and hot stone massages, Groupon announced Groupon Reserve this morning, which aims to bundle time-based discounts with restaurant reservations. Groupon's tapping Savored.com's reservation tech to handle the heavy-lifting behind the scenes -- the service is already live in 10 markets, including New York City and Los Angeles, and seemingly goes after OpenTable head-on.

Of course, Groupon Reserve isn't quite the same service as OpenTable. With Reserve, you plug in a time, party size, date and city, and you're offered a variety of restaurant options with discounts, whereas with OpenTable you're simply plugging in the aforementioned info and looking for a spot. Though Groupon Reserve only handles restaurant reservations thus far, the plan is for "spas, salons and hotels" in the coming months; ambiguous options from "top beauty, product, travel and entertainment brands" are also in the cards. Groupon Reserve will reach international shores and even more US cities "by the end of 2013." Now if you'll excuse us, we're arranging a more affordable date at Butter. We're pretty fancy.

Yesterday, Groupon POS appeared in the iTunes Store, but was quickly pulled. Now we know why. Breadcrumb POS, which is the official name of yesterday's leaked point-of-sale iPad app, is now officially available, bringing a simple interface and a handful of financial incentives. The application, which can be downloaded for free, charges vendors a credit card processing fee of 1.8 percent plus 15 cents per transaction, assuming you're swiping plastic from MasterCard, Visa or Discover. In an effort to get small businesses signed up, however, Groupon is offering to cover the fees on the first $5,000 in credit card transactions, a savings of $90 by our calculations, plus whatever you'd be paying per swipe.

The app enables you to log transactions, manage menu items and issue refunds, in addition to processing credit cards and emailing receipts. The POS uses Breadcrumb Payments for processing, with deposits posting within 24 hours, and can be paired with a card swiper and optional printer (you can email receipts if you'd prefer). There's also free 24/7 telephone support, should you run into any issues while using the system. Breadcrumb POS won't replace the more sophisticated Pro version, which is available starting at $99 per month, and retailers will still be able to use the Groupon Merchants App for redeeming vouchers and processing supplemental payments. If the new Breadcrumb POS sounds like a fit, snag some more info at the source link below.

Last year, Groupon acquired Breadcrumb, a New York City-based startup known for its affordable iPad-based point-of-sale system. Now, a new Groupon-branded version of the tool, called POS, arrived in the iTunes store this morning, giving merchants a venue to process and track customer tabs, with a much simpler interface. The app, which appears to be a significantly dumbed-down version of Breadcrumb, is compatible with an optional cash drawer and printer, according to the iTunes listing, but doesn't appear to offer advanced management functionality, such as time sheets and advanced reports (though basic stats are tracked). Groupon POS is available for download now at the source link below -- subscription info is lacking, but based on the limited functionality here, we wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's free.

Update: Groupon has pulled the app from iTunes pending a future launch of the POS product, which will be released under a different name.

Use Groupon Payments for your business? You just got a little more choice -- the popular deal broker just updated its Android app to support credit card transactions. The update brings the fledgling payment service a little closer to Square, which has been available on Android since 2010. If the iOS rates hold, swiping plastic through Groupon Merchants will set retailers back a mere $0.15 per transaction, plus 1.8 percent of the charge for Visa, MasterCard and Discover, or three percent for American Express. The update also boasts improved analytics, giving retailers the ability to check transaction history, daily sales reports and peek at revenue trends. Budding business owners can check out official press release after the break.

A few months ago, Groupon quietly scooped up a New York-based startup by the name of Breadcrumb, which, back then, was presumably regarded as a sign of POS-related things to come from the deal-sharing company. Today, nearly five months after its snappy acquisition, Groupon's officially relaunching launching Breadcrumb, marking the outfit's formal entrance into the point-of-sale game with its own iPad-based system. Groupon says Breadcrumb will be a great choice for all business owners interested, thanks in large part to its "easy-to-use and affordable" POS iPad system -- one which will start off at $99 per month and will include an all-in-one Breadbox that packs all the necessary tools to get up and running, as well as handy 24/7 support from restaurant and bar geniuses. You can get a better feel for what Breadcrumb's all about in the video below -- and please, please don't forget to clean after yourself.

Popular deal website Groupon is venturing into the world of smart phone-based credit card payments today, launching the Groupon Payments initiative nationwide after a successful pilot program is the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year. Groupon's boasting a guaranteed lowest cost pricing to merchants using Groupon Payments for credit card transactions -- MasterCard, Visa, and Discover will cost retailers 1.8 percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee, while American Express will cost three percent of credit card sales, plus a $0.15 per transaction fee. The biggest competition in the space comes from Square, headed by former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which charges a flat 2.75 percent rate on all transactions against all cards, though PayPal, Intuit, and Verifone all offer similar services.

Today's news matches up directly with leaks we saw back in May, adding on that merchants will see the day's credit card purchases credited to their bank accounts overnight, rather than waiting two to three business days (per standard practice). Beyond credit card services, Groupon's Merchants app also accepts Groupon daily deals, which helps elucidate why Groupon would be interested in entering the mobile credit card payments market in the first place (beyond it being a lucrative market unto itself, of course). Interested parties can sign up over on Groupon's website, and snag the free payments app right here. Finally -- finally -- you'll be able to sell all those $10 gift certificates to Chili's you've been hoarding. Perhaps charge $5 a pop for their $10 value and ... is this a paradox? This might be a paradox.

Square, PayPal, Intuit, Verifone -- the mobile payments field (and we're not talking wallets here) is seriously crowded already. So, the question is then, why on Earth would Groupon want to join the fray? We're not entirely sure, but VentureBeat is reporting the coupon service is preparing to do just that. According to a source within the company, Groupon is testing card-reading dongle and payment platform with surprisingly aggressive pricing. According to the insider, transaction fees will be 1.8 percent, on top of a $0.15 base charge. By comparison, square charges a flat 2.75 percent. Interestingly, the source also claims that Groupon is handing out, not just free readers, but free iPod touches to plug them into. The move makes obvious sense since the company snatched up Kima Labs, makers of TapBuy, in February. Besides, it could easily integrate its discount offers with the platform as a value added service. None of this is confirmed just yet but, we certainly wont be surprised if this rumor pans out.

CTIA is gaining momentum, and Nokia has just announced a slew of new app partnerships for its Lumia line at the show. Sports fans can look forward to PGA Tour, a dedicated app to cover the golfing action, while the ESPN sports hub will get a series of updates, plus an exclusive Lumia-only Fantasy Football app in autumn. Gamers will get new treats from EA -- including FIFA, NBA Jam and more -- and Rovio, which is creating a dedicated development team to create titles for Nokia Windows phones. Other notable names on the list to either get a new app or an update include Groupon, PayPal, Time, NewsWeek and more. Be sure to poke the source link for the full list.

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Tue, 08 May 2012 12:50:00 -040021|20233724http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/15/groupon-offers-kirf-ipad-for-248-proves-its-the-best-deals-si/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
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Why does one thumb its nose at a $6 billion offer from Google? 'Cause you can make a mighty fine sum from hawking Android-equipped KIRF iPads, apparently.